People screening systems, which can be X-ray, active millimeter wave, or passive millimeter wave based and metal detector systems, are deployed at transit points to detect contraband and threat items, such as weapons, explosives, and other dangerous objects concealed under clothing and within clothing. There exist a wide range of threat items, which are difficult to be automatically and conclusively detected by an automated algorithmic-based X-ray scanned image analysis system, leading to high false alarm rates.
In conventional systems, an operator is required to identify very low contrast objects. The difficulty of this task results in poor detection capability for a wide range of contraband and threats composed of low atomic number elements, such as plastics or ceramics, because they are often masked by the low atomic number elements that comprise the human body. Algorithmic-based image analyses such as edge detection or contour effects may be used for automatically and uniformly enhancing the image edges of low atomic number concealed objects to facilitate their detection. However, such edge enhancement is often accompanied with a simultaneous suppression of the edges of internal human anatomy that produce confusion in image interpretation.
However, a full body pat-down search is often time-consuming, resource-intensive, and uncomfortable for both the security personnel and the subject under inspection. The time consumed in performing full-body pat-downs further decreases throughput, thus making the process slow and inconvenient for other subjects who are in queue for security screening.
Accordingly, there is need for an integrated process for effectively managing the flow of people through various screening procedures, including a people screening system, such as, but not limited to, an automated people screening system, manual screening system, or an X-ray-based people screening system, operator intervention through scan image review, and pat-down search by security personnel in a way that optimizes overall throughput and staff requirements.